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Monday, February 12, 2007

Three months ago, my husband and I committed ourselves to two mortgages as well as building a new log home on vacant farm land. We've always been financially comfortable and have denied ourselves little while saving a moderate amount for retirement. We took a good deal of money out of our savings to put down sizable downpayments on both the home we now live in, and the land we purchased. In these past few months, I've undergone a sea change in my spending habits and the way I run my home.

Certain changes have been pretty easy to make and not very noticeable. For instance, I've always cooked most of our meals at home. I now cook all of our meals at home. Other frugal practices are new to me, like keeping a price comparison book. This is something that I never bothered to do before, even though I suspected it would be a good money-saving practice. Now I know just how empowering a tool this little notebook is. I've also recently taken up home baking as a way to further reduce my grocery bill.

I am constantly looking for new ways to conserve resources and make our dollars stretch further. I don't work outside the home right now, though that may change. I plan to be the general contractor for our log home building project, which will keep me very busy in the months to come.

My hopes for this blog are to document my own progress in becoming a more frugal person, and to perhaps begin a little dialog with others who wish to make the most out of the money they earn.

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About me

I live on a 2/3 acre homestead in a residential neighborhood. A major goal is to demonstrate how much food a non-expert can produce in my particular climate and hardiness zone, with the soils native to my immediate area. We have gardens of annual and perennial plants, keep laying hens and honey bees, and regularly bite off more than we can chew. Another major goal is to pay off our mortgage as fast as possible. Here I blog about frugality, self-reliance, gardening, cooking and baking, food preservation, practical skills, half-baked experiments, and preparing to thrive in a lower-energy future.